How to get back into the school grind, create good habits, and break old ones

 I know how hard it can be to get back into the mindset of studying for school or working at your job after a long break. I’m here to share some of the key concepts I have learned from James Clear’s book “Atomic Habits” to help students and others like myself overcome the dread of returning to school and get back into their routine post spring break. These tips are what I have personally found to help myself, and I hope it will help others too!

Phot by James Clear

The first big key takeaway that has helped me is changing my mindset, from being outcome based to identity and belief based. This means that instead of focusing on your long list of to-dos and assignments, you should think about fixing your identity to who you want to be. If your goal is to complete all your homework assignments, it will feel like you have to run a marathon each time to get that done. However, if you change your attitude and tell yourself that you want to be a studious person or want to be scholarly, then your motivation will come a lot easier and the reward of completing your goal will feel much better. This works for other positive habits that you want to build too. If you want to read more books, you might say you want to be a reader. Instead of saying you want to workout 4 times a week, instead try reminding yourself that you want to be a healthy active person. If you want to practice your instrument more, you might say you want to be a musically inclined person. If would like to stop smoking and you are offered a cigarette, instead of saying “I want to quit” like you are trying to be someone you’re not say, “I’m not a smoker” and build your identity around that.

When it comes to creating new habits and breaking old ones, you don’t have to be special at all, you just have to be consistent. All habits are created through repetition. Some of the best ways to create new positive habits are making them obvious and attractive, and you can break bad habits by doing the opposite, making them invisible and unattractive. For me, if I am struggling with getting started on studying, I will place my laptop and notebook clearly visible on my desk. If I want to make sure I practice my guitar after class, I will place it out in the open so it is extremely obvious. If I want to spend less time on my phone, I will also make it invisible by turning it off and placing it in a completely different room. Reducing the number of steps it takes you to start your good habits, and increasing the number of steps it takes to do a bad habit can help. After making your habits obvious, you can make them attractive by bundling them with rewards. For example, when I am dreading studying for an exam, I like to remind myself how good being prepared for the exam will feel, or I can also do something I want, like watching TV after completing my goal. It works similarly for breaking bad habits. When I am too distracted by social media, I will remind myself how good it will feel to replace scrolling with reading a book and more connected to the present.

Photo by Indeed

These strategies have greatly helped me become a better student and if you’re reading this, I hope it was meaningful and can be a help to you too!

Thank you for reading my blog!

Caleb G / Industry Insider